Grade 2

I can offically state that my mother is the most patient women on the face of this earth. After spending ONE day on ONE subject with ONE child, I stand in awe of this woman who does ALL subjects with FIVE kids every single day, and has taught grade 2 EIGHT times in the last fourteen years. Granted, I was helping Mary. And she was doing math. It was entertaining, certainly. Every so often when it just became too much to handle, she would politely excuse herself, explain her purpose in the diversion, and run to the couch, fly upside down and stand on her head for the duration of the following question. She said it made her think better. Once, we got to a 9 x 8 question. I cringed inwardly, fairly confident she wouldn't know how to multiply bigger numbers like that. All of a sudden, she started singing this multiplication song....all the way to 72 and I love you-oo (and you love me-ee, let's gooo tooogether......). (I think she made that part up.) Either way, she knew the answer, and that's more than I could have said for my seven-year old self. Finally, by some miracle, we reached the end of 3 or so hours of tough multiplication, graphs, written quetsions, and fill in the blanks. There was only one miniscule question left. 4 x 7 to be exact. She hadn't learnt her "4's" yet, and I opted to leave that one and wait until Mum could explain it to her. She refused. So I did my best. I mean I couldn't just give the answer away....that's no way to teach children. She wimpered. She wallowed. Then she wailed. Quite powerfully. I was not quite sure what to do. She called me a cruel and unfeeling sister for leaving her incapable of an answer so easily within her reach and witholding from her the one answer which would give her the peace of mind gained only from being utterly finished one's schoolwork. (paraphrased. But she did say cruel). I stopped trying to make up songs to teach multiplication and told her the answer. Problem solved. Mathematics done for the day. Thank heaven mother is back tomorrow.